The Greek spirit, culture and history will come alive in a sweeping program, “A Greek Musical Odyssey”, to be presented in the Ossie Davis Theater of the New Rochelle Public Library on Sunday, March 25 at 3:00 pm. The acclaimed soprano Julie Ziavras will perform music by prominent Greek songwriters, with accompaniment by pianist/arranger Spiro Cardamis, bouzouki master Kostas Psarros and Ms. Ziavras on guitar. The program will include Greek acoustic classics with songs by renowned Greek composers, including Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Vassilis Tsitsanis, rembetika (“the blues of Greece”), and traditional songs. The fabulous music is a crossover from classical artsong to Greek folk music, creating a unique sound with roots in both the east and west.
A donation of $2.00 is suggested at the door. This concert is made possible by the Lillian Robbins Memorial Fund.
NRPL has partnered with the Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC) at the New Rochelle High School and the Aquila Theatre Company to bring ANCIENT GREEKS / MODERN LIVES: Poetry—Drama – Dialogue to New Rochelle in March, 2012. The project is a national initiative that is bringing the classics to 100 communities around America, and is designed to inspire people to come together to read, see, and think about classical literature and how it continues to influence and invigorate American cultural life.
Soprano Julie Ziavras is known for her diversity of styles, ranging from opera and classical art song to contemporary and traditional folk, Greek and international ballads. Classically trained, she holds Bachelor and Masters degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and has coached with Metropolitan Opera maestros including George Schick and Alberta Masiello. She has performed in concert, on radio and TV in the US and abroad and has been a featured artist at international song festivals.
Appearances in NYC include Carnegie Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Hall, Symphony Space Theater, Delaware Valley Opera, the Opera Company of the Highlands, The Festival Theatre of New York, the World Music Institute, the Guggenheim Museum in Soho, the Alternative Museum, Bodles Opera House, The Puffin Cultural Forum, The Grand Montgomery Chamber Music Series, The Warwick Master Arts Series, WBAI, WNYC, and WJFF, among others. Among her appearances abroad, she has appeared as featured artist at international festivals, including soloist in the Fiesta Internacional de las Naciones in Venezuela, the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, International Festival of Daphnis in Greece and in Montreal in a cantata written for her voice. She has premiered many works written expressly for her voice, including a contemporary song cycle written to the poetry of Walt Whitman, an off-Broadway musical of Aristophanes’s The Birds, an opera based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s play Babylon Revisited. She is currently featured on mp3 singing a vocalise written for her voice by Spiro Cardamis entitled New Millenium (click here to listen),which was in the number one spot in the opera category for three months and is now in their “Hall of Fame”. A review of this performance in The Gods of Music states that “the strings would be vapid without the incredible voice, a siren who summoned my spirit onto the rocks of musical ecstasy.”
She was invited to Greece by prominent composer/music director Manos Hadjidakis to appear on Greek National Radio (ERT) as featured artist for numerous concerts and live broadcasts in varying repertoire, including opera, lieder, Rennaissance song and contemporary music. This included a performance of a premiered work at the Pireus National Theater that was broadcast live nationally on radio. She was featured soloist in a concert tour with Greek composer Notis Mavroudis originating in Greece and culminating in Serbia, in which selections of original music he wrote for her voice from her solo CD Simply Mavroudis were premiered with great success, to an audience that followed the music with translations. These songs represent the only collection of songs Mr. Mavroudis has written exclusively for one singer. The performance was simulcast nationally on Serbian National Radio and TV.
She was the creator, co-founder and featured soloist of the music café and touring ensemble “Café Acroama” in Astoria, NY, which brought fine Greek song to a vast audience of Greek Americans and non-Greeks alike. As part of the acoustic folk duo “Ken & Julie, she appears in folk venues accompanying herself on guitar, featuring songs written for her voice by her husband, singer/songwriter Ken DeAngelis. In 2005, Ken & Julie completed a concert tour with Broadway Concerts Direct of theaters in six cities in Nova Scotia, with a repertory which included opera, art song, Broadway, international and folk music. “Julie is the muse of internationally acclaimed composers. She performs their songs with world-class lyrical beauty, artistry and interpretation.” (John Hiller, Broadway Concerts Direct). A review of Ken and Julie’s recently released debut CD The Dream in CDReviews.com states: “The pure talent of DeAngelis and Ziavras combine to generate some real gems, sparkling with energy and life.”